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Boston Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran

The Boston Red Sox clinched their spot in the MLB Postseason for the first time since 2021 on Friday night with a walk-off hit from Ceddanne Rafaela. Red Sox left fielder Jarren Duran was interviewed after the game as he and his teammates celebrated their triumph over the Tigers.

NESN reporter Jahmai Webster asked Duran what it felt like to make the postseason for the first time in his career, to which Duran responded with an NSFW response.

“It feels pretty f****** good, I’ll tell you that right now, I don’t really care about my filter,” Duran exclaimed on live television.

Duran played an instrumental role in the Red Sox win on Friday night, driving in the game-tying run in the bottom of the eighth inning before Rafaela won it in the ninth. Catcher Carlos Narvaez singled to start the inning, and was pinch run for by speedster Nate Eaton. Eaton quickly stole second base and was able to advance after the throw down went into center field.

With Eaton on third, Duran slapped a base hit to left field to tie the game in the late innings.

Young Red Sox Ready For Playoff Baseball

Boston only has three players with extensive playoff experience in Alex Bregman, Nathaniel Lowe and Aroldis Chapman. Many of the Sox big impact players this season have been young guys with little to no postseason experience: Rafaela, Garrett Crochet, Brayan Bello, Wilyer Abreu, Romy Gonzalez, not to mention Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer who are both on the IL right now.

Still, after a mediocre first three months of the season, a summer turnaround led by the Red Sox young guns has led them back to the playoffs for the first time since 2021, when the Boston roster looked completely different.

Duran is confident that despite their lack of experience, this team has what it takes to go on a deep October run.

“I love this team and we’ve come a long way, I can’t wait to see what we do,” Duran said. “We have fun and we don’t really care what other people are saying about us, we keep playing and we keep doing our thing. We’ve proven that all year and we’re just going to keep doing it.”

Making Sense of Playoff Seeding in American League

Boston will be playing a road Wild Card series, as Toronto and New York are too far ahead in both the AL East and Wild Card standings to catch with just two games remaining in the season.

As of Saturday, Sept. 27, Boston would face New York at Yankee Stadium in the opening round. This can change if the Yankees win their final two games and Toronto loses one, which would give New York a bye to the ALDS, while Boston would then face the Blue Jays.

Things can shift if Detroit beats Boston in the final two games of the series this weekend. If that happens, they will claim the No. 2 Wild Card spot where they would face the Yankees or Blue Jays. The Tigers own the tiebreaker with Boston, which is head-to-head matchups. If the Red Sox pick up just one of the two final games, they will claim the No. 2 Wild Card seed.

Matt Skillings Matt Skillings is a Boston based sports journalist and a graduate of UMass Amherst, where he majored in journalism and communication. Matt covered the UMass men’s ice hockey team for three years for the Massachusetts Daily Collegian. He was also a media intern for the Harwich Mariners of the Cape Cod Baseball League for two summers. Matt has additional bylines with the New England Hockey Journal, the Boston Globe and MassLive. More about Matt Skillings

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